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How to travel with milk?

It's me again! This forum has been so helpful. I just contacted the TSA and learned that you still cannot bring milk on a plane without a baby. For various reasons, I won't have the option of shipping breastmilk back. Is there anyway to send non-frozen breastmilk that has been in the fridge through checked luggage?

Re: How to travel with milk?

Sure there is. Pack it well, possibly double-bag it, so it doesn't leak as the luggage gets bounced around. Pack it in a cooler that will keep it cool enough for the length of your trip, then off you go. If it will be a very long trip, consider dry ice. Inside the luggage is where we're supposed to put all other liquids, too, like full-size shampoos.

Shannon
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Re: How to travel with milk?

I had a business trip the day after they implemented the "small containers in quart bags" rule. It was just an overnight trip so I didn't want to check the luggage. I figured I'd try putting it in my carry-on bag and if it wasn't approrpriate, I'd check it.

The only things I put in the quart ziploc were two medela bottles and a squeeze container of lanolin (figuring that perhaps if that was all I tried to take, perhaps they would be more lenient). I had about 6 oz total of milk and I split it between the 2 bottles, so each bottle met the 3 oz rule (which apparently, is their biggest concern). I could see that if I had more milk, it might have been an issue.

They didn't give it a second glance. :-) Maybe they just thought it was a special type of shampoo! Or possibly they weren't that familiar with the new rules and were just looking for volume, not for types of liquids.

Now, my pump was a different story. It is a PIS and I took it out of the usual bag so it was just parts. I should have realized the black pack in which the motor is kept would look awfully funny since the xray just sees square black box. So they had to do a hand check of everything. On my return trip, I didn't close it up so the motor was visible on the xray.

I'm sure all this is highly variable. If time is tight or you don't want to deal with the hassle, it does seem like checking it is the best thing to do. When I travel again, I will probably try the same thing.

Re: How to travel with milk?

When I contacted TSA in Sept they told me that as long as I had a script from the Dr saying that I needed to carry my pump and my milk that it wouldn't be an issue. I flew on Sept 22 from Cleveland to Chicago and then home again on the 24th with all my milk frozen and in my PISA bag with no issues at all. They did search my PISA and look at my frozen bags of milk but they didn't say anything at all about it. I even mentioned to the girl that I had a prescription for both the pump and the milk but they didn't even look at it.

I just wonder why TSA would tell people different things? They need to get the act together and give out the same answers so us traveling mommas can keep going and not waste our precious milk!!

Re: How to travel with milk?

I hadn't heard you can take it on with a Dr note--I usually have more than 3 oz bags and def. more than I can manage in the quart-size zip-lock. I've done 4 trips since the new guidelines were put into place (1 since they started with the quarter size baggies) and I just packed a cooler and sealed everything up well with ice and had no problems--sometimes the cooler and everything were packed up for 8-9 hours before I could unpack and most of the ice was still frozen and bags were still at a decent refrigerated temp.

From my travels I have noticed that TSA is very different depending on where you are. I have also found that larger airports seem more 'easy-going' about everything, probably because they see it all the time so it is not as 'weird' or concerning as a result (not being uncareful, just different awareness level). I have had to go though several really small airports too and they were the ones were I had more trouble, again, probably because I was the only person that day, maybe even that week, who went through with anything like a breastpump

Re: How to travel with milk?

amtreboni - I totally hear you about the small airports! With my first DS I started traveling for work at 7 weeks and traveled 2 weeks out of every month. I went in and out of many rinky dink airports and they all were so confused by my PISA!! I would get these looks as it went through the xray and then they would pull my bag for hand search and I would explain that it was a breastpump and most guys would turn beet red!

Make sure you ALWAYS ask TSA to put on a clean pair of disposable gloves before hand searching your pump or any bags for that matter! They touch so much stuff its just better to be as clean as you can.